1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains generally to the fields of work holders and butchering, and more specifically to cutting boards that may be used as underlying supports during the preparation of food or crafts.
2. Description of the Related Art
Cutting boards have been in use for nearly as long as man has been civilized. The utility of a cutting board is derived from a need to cut various objects while simultaneously preserving the cutting edge of knives or blades. In the specific case of the culinary arts, the chef will also aspire to prepare foods in a clean and sanitary way.
Directly cutting objects upon a hard support which resists damage from a knife is known to unduly dull the knife when the object is severed. Dulled cutlery requires additional force when severing work, and may lead to dangerous slipping and injury. Yet maintaining the cutlery in a sharp state requires substantial sharpening time, and, when the cutlery is repeatedly dulled by the work support, the repeated sharpening also leads to undesired wear of the cutlery. However, cutting without a board or other suitable work surface results in unrestrained movement of the cutting blade upon severing of the food, which may lead to injury. Furthermore, without a suitable support, foods may be contaminated by unsterile surfaces. A similar issue arises with the use of a porous work support surface. The porous surface will trap food juices therein, potentially contaminating the work surface and harboring dangerous pathogens.
In a modern usehold, the cutting board will allow a person to prepare food quickly by slicing a diverse variety of foods, spices and other food ingredients without fear of permanently damaging either the work areas, typically counters and the like, or damaging the cutlery. With an appropriate cutting board, the cook may simply press hard enough to ensure that the food is completely sliced, without regard for what might occur with the knife after the food has been severed. Outside of the kitchen, but still within a dwelling, there are many times when a person requires the use of a sharp blade such as a razor blade, Exacto-Knife or other tool for cutting various substrates. In these instances, the same concerns regarding the cutlery and work surfaces exist, where the working knife must, to perform the intended function, pierce through the material being cut. As a consequence, it is impossible for a person to stop short of cutting all the way through the substrate and still obtain the desired result. Consequently, there must be contact between the knife and the underlying work support. Where this work support is furniture or the like, the knife will cause harm and damage that may be irreparable.
In the outdoors or in areas less furnished, there may not be a ready work surface. In such instances, it is highly desired to provide a way to prepare food without risking contamination of the food with dirt, earth or the like. Similarly, the knife will also most desirably be protected from damage.
In the prior art, in order to achieve the important goals of protecting the knife while providing a severing surface, and to simultaneously avoid harboring dangerous pathogens, many cutting boards have been fabricated from wood. In particular, closed grain or minimally-grained woods tend to be preferred, such as maple, in the fabrication of cutting boards. This is because most wood species have very little damaging effect on the sharpness of a knife edge during engagement therewith, and closed-grain species provide a relatively non-porous and safe surface for working upon. To prevent liquids from penetrating the wood and forming a hazardous surface, a food oil such as vegetable oil is commonly applied to the wood and permitted to soak into the pores or openings therein. As is known, the oil prevents water-based liquids from penetrating therein, while simultaneously providing a relatively mild, oiled surface against which the knife blade will be pressed. This oiled wood surface provides very minimal wearing of the knife blade or wooden surface, and yet may be readily cleaned or washed after use.
These traditional wooden cutting surfaces have been the standard used in kitchens for many years. However, the wooden surface requires proper cleaning and oiling to ensure safe usage over time. To have utility with different projects and types of work, the cutting board must be reasonably large to adequately support the various work. In a large kitchen area, this normally does not present a problem, since there is usually a space where the cutting board may either be supported on edge or otherwise stored. In fact, many modern kitchens include a pull-out cutting board immediately below the counter-top. However, it will be apparent that the surface area of the cutting board and, relative to surface area, thinness of the board, does not lend the board to be readily transported, nor for storage in smaller spaces or places. Not only does the traditional thin and flat cutting board suffer from an inconvenient size, the board must either be manufactured excessively thick to have adequate strength to avoid breakage, or may instead be excessively heavy. Yet, there are many times where a person would benefit from the availability of the cutting board.
In a first manifestation, the invention is a folding cutting board which may be collapsed into a compact and rigid structure for storage and transport, and which has a smooth, contiguous, non-porous surface when in a fully opened position. The cutting board comprises at least two body members, each having a first contiguous generally planar cutting surface and a second base surface and a thickness therebetween. A hinging member has a minimum hinge thickness defining a longitudinal hinge axis and forming a smoothly curving arch in a cross-section transverse to the longitudinal hinge axis, for separating and enabling relative rotation between the at least two body members. The hinging member develops stresses responsive to relative rotation between the at least two body members that are distributed gradually throughout the smoothly curving arch.
In a second manifestation, the invention is a work support surface which is simultaneously folding and yet which provides a smooth and contiguous surface. A contiguous sheet of polymeric material forms a first working surface and a second hinging surface, the two separated from each other by a thickness of the contiguous sheet. First, second, third and fourth grooves are cut into the hinging surface and subtend the contiguous sheet into first, second, third and fourth body members of relatively flat and planar geometry, each having equal surface area on the second hinging surface.
The second and third grooves further subtend the second hinging surface into a fifth body member having a surface length approximately equal to the length of the second and third grooves and a surface width approximately equal to twice the thickness of the contiguous sheet.
In a third manifestation, the invention is a method of constructing, using and closing a cutting board having at least four body sections, each of the at least four body sections having a work supporting surface upon which cutting may operatively be performed. According to the method, a first one of the at least four body section work supporting surfaces is folded from a position generally coplanar with a second one of the at least four body section work supporting surfaces to a position immediately adjacent to the second one of the at least four body section work supporting surfaces. A fourth one of the at least four body section supporting surfaces is rotated from a position generally coplanar with a third one of the at least four body section work supporting surfaces to a position immediately adjacent the third one of the at least four body section work supporting surfaces and spaced from the first body section by an amount approximately equal to the sum of a thickness of the first one of the at least four body sections and a thickness of the fourth one of the at least four body sections. The second one of the at least four body section work supporting surfaces is pivoted from a position generally coplanar with the third one of the at least four body section work supporting surfaces to a position parallel to and spaced from the third one of the at least four body section work supporting surfaces while maintaining the first one of the at least four body section work supporting surfaces adjacent the second one of the at least four body section work supporting surfaces and the fourth one of the at least four body section work supporting surfaces adjacent the third one of the at least four body section work supporting surfaces, the second one of the at least four body section work supporting surfaces separated from the third one of the at least four body section work supporting surface by the first and fourth ones of the at least four body sections.
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention solve inadequacies of the prior art by providing a knife-friendly, folding cutting board which uses a no-pinch and distributed stress hinge and which also uses a polymeric material which is less dense than water.
A first object of the invention is to provide a support for work, foods, ingredients or any other material or compound which is structurally sound, contiguous, less dense than water, and non-porous. A second object of the invention is to provide such a work support which has a surface that is non-damaging to a cutting blade. Another object of the present invention is to enable folding of a cutting board for compact storage and durability during transport. Most preferably, the cutting board will fold with cutting surfaces in contact with other cutting surfaces. A further object of the invention is to ensure that, during folding, the hinge region is non-pinching, thereby preventing the hinge region from either trapping foreign objects or pinching fingers or the like. Yet another object of the present invention is to provide such a hinge which is free from concentrated stresses during flexure which would otherwise significantly reduce the life of the hinge.